how to check when an assignment closes on canvas

Instructional Design & Online Course Support

University of Wisconsin

Understanding Assignment Dates in Canvas

Posted: May 22, 2019 | Last Modified: January 25, 2024

All dates associated with assignments use the time zone set in the course. If the course time zone is Central time and has an assignment due at 11:59 pm, the assignment will display as due at 10:59 pm to a student in Mountain time. All dates associated with assignments also appear in the Assignments Index page.

Canvas provides three options for setting dates on assignments:

The Due date indicates the date and time when the assignment is due.

Student considerations : With a due date on an assignment, students can

• see the due date on the Calendar and in their To Do list
• access the assignment at any time
• submit the assignment any time before or on the due date (e.g., Jun 21 11:59pm)
• submit the assignment any time after the due date (it will be marked as late)

Instructor considerations : Assignment Due dates

• automatically appear in the Calendar and the To-Do list, helping your students organize their time and tasks
• are recommended for all assignments
• are recommended for use in indicating the due date of an initial discussion post
• can be edited by drag & drop on the calendar

Available from Date

The Available from date determines when a student can first access the assignment. This date appears in the assignment, but not on the Calendar. In this example, the assignment is available one week prior to the Due date.

Student considerations : When an Available from date is set on an assignment, students can

• access the assignment on or after the Available from date (e.g., June 14 12am)
• submit the assignment between the Available from date and the due date (e.g., Jun 21 11:59pm)
• submit the assignment any time after the Due date (it will be marked as late) unless an Until date is also set

Instructor considerations : Assignment Available from dates:

• do not appear on the Calendar nor can they be edited on the Calendar.
• can be used to prevent students from working too far ahead
• can be used to prevent early access to quizzes/exams
• do not need to be used in conjunction with Until dates

The Until date locks an assignment so that students can no longer submit their work. This date appears in the assignment, but not on the Calendar. In this example, the assignment is available one week prior to the Due date. Students can submit late work for two days following the Due date.

Student considerations : When an Until date is set on an assignment, students can

• access the assignment at any time unless an Available from date has been set
• submit the assignment before or on the Due date (e.g., Jun 21 11:59pm)
• submit the assignment between the Due date and the Until date (June 23 11:59pm) (it will be marked as late)
• cannot access the assignment after the Until date (June 23 11:59pm)

Instructor considerations : Assignment Until dates:

• prevent editing the assignment Due date by drag & drop on the Calendar
• do not need to be used in conjunction with Available from dates
• can be different (later) than the Due date
• can be used to prevent late submissions
• can be used to allow a grace period after a Due date

Notes About Dates

• All dates associated with an assignment are visible from the Assignments Index page. Click here to view a Canvas Guide about the Assignments Index page along with examples of what information is visible there .
• Availability dates (Available from and Until dates) do not display on the Calendar nor can they be edited on the Calendar. If you use until dates, you should also apply a due date to the assignment so students see that on the Calendar.

See the Canvas guide on dates for more information: What is the difference between assignment due dates and availability dates?

February 27, 2023 at 5:28 PM

Can a professor see the date he or she posted the instructions of an assigment?

March 1, 2023 at 11:53 AM

Hi Luis, I’m not sure I understand your question, but Canvas support would probably be the best place to go for support issues!

• Faculty Affairs Website
• FacultyHelp

Q. Canvas: How do I know if a student submitted an assignment late?

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Last Updated: Jan 24, 2024     Views: 6038

Canvas will display the date and time a student submits an assignment in the gradebook. If a student re-submits an assignment, Canvas will still display the original submission date and time. If the assignment is late, it will be highlighted in pink and labeled as "late" in the Canvas gradebook and Student Context Card.

Faculty will see a paper icon in the gradebook for Waypoint assignments after a student has submitted that assignment in Waypoint. This indicates that a submission has been received but has not been graded.

Link(s) to Document(s):

• Can I see multiple submission attempts made by students in Waypoint?

Link(s) to Video(s):

Contact Information

Canvas - Assigning to Individual Student and reassigning to Everyone Else [UW-Madison]

  Expand All Collapse All  

How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?

If you would like to change the availability or due date for an individual student, or students, please follow How do I assign an assignment to an individual student? from Canvas community. 

How do I restore student submissions/grades if I unassigned an assignment?

When giving students an extension on a quiz or assignment, it’s possible for an instructor to unassign from the rest of the class. However, you can typically recover these students’ submissions by reassigning the grade item to everyone else. Please see the next section, How do I reassign an assignment to Everyone Else ? for more details.

How do I reassign an assignment to Everyone Else?

When creating or editing an assignment, you can assign an assignment to individual students, and set different due and availability dates for individual students while it is assigned to the rest of the class. Only the student(s) specified in the assignment details can view the assignment. 

Locate the assignment you need to edit, and open it.

When you assignment details page opens, scroll down to the field Assign. 

Select the Save Button.

Navigate to Gradebook

Find the assignment in Gradebook . The grades should be available once again.

Getting Started with Canvas Assignments

• Last modification date Updated On June 8, 2023
• Categories: Assignments , Canvas , Uncategorized
• Categories: assessment , Getting Started , Grading

Canvas  Assignments  are a way for instructors to provide students opportunities to practice using the knowledge and skills they have gained or to assess student performance related to such knowledge and skills. (Creating an Assignment is the  only  way to create a new column in the Gradebook.)

In Canvas there are four basic  Submission Types  for assignments. The submission types include:

• No Submission : For assignments for which you are not collecting any content from the students.
• Text Entry : For students to enter text directly into a text box on Canvas.
• Website URL : For students to enter a URL (usually to a blog, video, podcast, etc.).
• Media Recordings : For students to upload or record media for submission.
• File Uploads : For students to upload files for submission ( Restrict Upload File Types  will allow you to limit which types of files may be submitted).
• On Paper : For assignments students will submit in person.
• External Tool : For assignments which students will submit through a third-party tool (such as Turnitin, Panopto Video Quiz, and PlayPosit).

Managing an Assignment

Managing assignment groups.

When getting started with Assignments, learn to

• Create an assignment shell with the Canvas guide  How do I create an assignment? 

If you select  Peer Reviews Appear Anonymously , annotation tools in  SpeedGrader  will become unavailable.

If you change the  Assign To  area from  Everyone  to select students after submissions have already begun, and do not have a second set of Assign To dates, submissions from unassigned students will disappear.

• Published assignments are visible as existing outside of availability dates, but students cannot see the details.
• If looking to update the due and/or availability dates on multiple assignments, see   How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• If choosing the option to make an assignment a  Group Assignment : If only assigning to specific groups, make sure to click the  X  on the  Everyone Else  choice under  Assign to .

Media Recording  Assignments are not recommended due to technical reasons. Instead, have students submit media by embedding it in a  Text Entry  assignment through Panopto .

Clearly express expectations and criteria for grading by using a  Rubric .

Be cautious limiting submission attempts, as students often make mistakes loading documents and need multiple attempts to ensure you have the correct submission.

• Delete an assignment with the Canvas guide  How do I delete an assignment?
• This duplication process will not work for Quizzes.
• Attach a rubric to an assignment for grading or to communicate expectations to students with the Canvas guide  How do I add a rubric to an assignment?

Accessibility Tips

• Use descriptive text for links, instead of long URLs or ‘click here’. 
• Make instructions brief and to-the-point. Avoid long paragraphs and sentences.
• Consider allowing multiple submission types to accommodate technical limitations students may face.

Assignment Groups  are a way to categorize different graded items in Canvas. For example, you may have journals, blogs, and essays which your students create in your course. Assignment Groups allow you to label and group different types of assignments separately in order to better organize and for ease when applying weighting (see  How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups? ). When getting started with Assignment Groups, learn to

• Add and delete assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I add an assignment group in a course?
• Move or reorder an assignment group with the Canvas guide  How do I move or reorder an assignment group?
• Make rules governing grading expectations within assignment groups with the Canvas guide  How do I create rules for an assignment group?

Additional Resources

• CTI Resource: What is the Assignments Index Page?
• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?
• How do I weight the final course grade based on assignment groups?
• Canvas Student Guide

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Canvas How-To: Closing Courses & Incompletes

Section menu close, office of academic technology.

• Canvas Administration
• External LMS User Requests
• Canvas Basics
• ⚙ Ally & Accessibility
• ⚙ Analytics
• ⚙ Announcements
• ⚙ Assignments
• ⚙ Attendance
• ⚙ Closing Courses & Incompletes
• ⚙ Collaborations
• ⚙ Combine Courses
• ⚙ Discussions & Discussions Plus
• ⚙ Group Assignments
• ⚙ Inbox & Messaging
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• ⚙ Profile & User Settings
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• ⚙ New Quizzes
• ⚙ SpeedGrader
• ⚙ Turnitin Assignments
• ⚙ Video-Based Assessments
• ⚙ VoiceThread Group Projects in Canvas
• ⚙ Zoom in Canvas
• Instructional Technology
• Online Course Design
• Training Opportunities
• OAT Updates & Tech Tips
• Copyright & the TEACH Act

Contact Information

Mary Stuart Rogers, MSR 380

This page reviews how to close a Canvas course and how to keep it open for specific students who are discharging an incomplete.

Closing Your Course

Canvas does not automatically close your course at the end of the term!  Because each instructor is responsible for opening their course on their preferred date, they are also responsible for closing it.  However, one year after the term has ended (according to the university calendar), OAT will conclude the term in Canvas.  Doing so will close any remaining open courses from that term.

Closing a course sets it to the "Concluded" status and moves it into the  Past Enrollments  course list for you and your students. By default, closed courses can be viewed by students and instructors, but they cannot be edited by instructors (including adding new users) or participated in by students. Instructors do have options to address various situations.  Read on for details.

How to Close a Course

Warnings 1) Do not close your course yet if you need some students to continue accessing it to resolve an incomplete. Set up the incomplete section first and then close the course. See the bottom of this page for more information about incompletes. 2) Do not close your course until  you  are ready to stop updating it. Once closed, it is also closed to updates and changes by instructors!

• Change the dropdown menu to "Course".
• In the  End  field that appears, supply the ending date you would like for the course.

What this does:  that checkbox will hide the course completely from students, including from their list of Past Enrollments.

• Click  Update Course Details  at the bottom of the page.

Closed courses will not disappear from the Dashboard if the course was deliberately 'starred' as a Favorite. To remove a favorite course from the Dashboard, open your  All Courses  link and unstar the course in question.

Course Access After Closing

To access a concluded course, click the  Courses  menu and then click the "All Courses" link. The course will be found in the  Past Enrollments  area of your course list.  Click on the course name to open it.

Using a Closed Course

Instructors .

The following instructor actions are  allowed  with a concluded course:

• Download grades  to a CSV (Excel) file
• Use as a source for copying into a new course
• Export a course  to local computer
• Access material using visible navigation links (any links that were hidden from students will be hidden from instructors as well in concluded courses)

The following instructor actions are  not allowed  with a concluded course:

• Edit/change/upload course content (incl. assignments, quizzes, discussions)
• Edit/change Grades
• View/download Analytics
• View/download Item Analysis within Quizzes
• Send a message to the whole class within Canvas (individual messages still ok)
• Change any class settings
• Change/update class navigation

The following student actions are  allowed  with a concluded course by default:

• Access the course via  All Courses > Past Enrollments
• View Grades and feedback
• View course content (incl. downloading files as during the course)
• View Discussions and Assignments
• Send a message to the instructor

The following student actions are  not allowed  with a concluded course:

• View Quiz questions and answers
• Submit discussions, assignments, quizzes, and other course activities

Restrict Closed Courses Further

As mentioned previously, by default, concluded courses are still visible to students in read-only mode. This enables students to return to the course material and activities as reference in future classes. However, instructors can still restrict student access in additional ways if desired.

Option 1: Restrict the entire course after course end date

Instructors can completely remove the course from students' Past Enrollments, preventing them from accessing it at all. In the course Settings, check the box for  'Restrict students from viewing course after end date'  and click Update Course Details. Instructors will still have read-only access via Past Enrollments; only students' access is removed.

Option 2: Keep course visible but hide course navigation menu links

Use this option to allow students access to specific general areas of the course but not to others.  For example, instructors may wish to hide the Modules page but leave the Grades link available.  Use the regular controls at  Settings > Navigation  to disable specific course areas and hide them from student view (don't forget to click 'Save' at the bottom!).

Caution:  In closed courses, hidden navigation menu links are hidden to both students and instructors.

Option 3: Hide specific course content

This option is really only applicable to instructional materials on the Modules page.  To hide specific items, simply  unpublish  the item in question.  However, do not unpublish items that contain student participation (assignments, discussions, etc.) For help with those types of content, contact  [email protected] .

Allow Access for Incompletes

Incompletes present a special situation where only specific students need access to a course after the course end date. To do this, instructors create a special section of the course in Canvas.

Part 1: Create a new section

• Below the list of sections, provide the name for the new section (e.g., Incomplete)
• Click "+ Section". The new section appears in the list of sections.
• Click the name of the new section.  

• In the  Ends  field, enter the date that the incompletes must be completed by.
• Important:  check the box "Students can only participate in the course between these dates"
• Click "Update Section"

Now you need to add the students to the new section.

Part 2: Enroll students in the new section

• Click the '3 dots' menu for the student and select "Edit Sections"
• In the pop-up that appears, click the "Browse" link.
• It is not necessary to remove the student from the default course section.
• Click "Update" to finish the process

Repeat these instructions for any other student who needs to be part of the Incomplete section.

Part 3: Close the course for other students

With the new Incomplete section in place and students enrolled into it, it's time to close the course to the other students.

• Review the instructions given at the top of this page on "How to close a course"

Part 4: Create custom due dates for Incomplete students

Canvas assignments and quizzes can have different due dates for different students.  For each activity to be completed by the students in the Incomplete section, add a custom due date window in the activity settings.

Note: Never change or delete an existing due date window!   Doing so will  unassign  the activity to those students and hide their work and grades for the activity.

Read more:  How do I assign an assignment to an individual student?

Contact  [email protected]  if you need assistance with any aspect of closing a course.

Updated: October 11, 2022

Modal Title

Higher Ed and Technology: Academics at Chapman

Canvas End of Semester Checklist Fall 2021

December 3, 2021

Some things to think about as you wrap up the semester in Canvas and post final grades.  Reminder, grades for Fall 2021 Semester and Trimester grades – due Sunday, January 2, 2022.

Put in Zeros for Missing Assignments

If students are missing assignments you will need to put in zeros for those missing assignments. The easiest way to do this is to open your Grade Center and look for empty grade cells.

Some instructors may also use the  Missing Submission Policy  in the gradebook settings.

Resource:   How do I enter and edit grades in the Gradebook?

Remove any Extra Categories and/or Columns

• Review the Assignments tab for any extra categories you didn’t use in your course. A common one is the category of “Imported Assignments” that gets created whenever assignments are imported from another course.
• Review all the Gradebook columns and make sure there aren’t any extra columns cluttering up your gradebook. These could be from duplicate assignments or assignments that were created but never published.  You can delete these from the Assignments tab.

Final Grades Go in the Faculty Center

You may have used the Canvas grade book for calculations, but final grades need to be submitted to the Chapman Faculty Center via my.chapman.edu. For more instructions on how to submit grades, visit the  Training Guides for the Faculty Center.

Concluding your Course

The end date for your course is automatically set according to the term in which your class is active. After the course concludes, students will no longer have access to your course by default.  This means students will not be able to see your course content, submit assignments, view prior quiz questions, see discussions, or see any assignment submissions.

Plan for Any Students Needing to Resolve Incompletes

If you have a course that needs to stay open beyond the end-of-term date to resolve an incomplete grade,  please submit a request form .

Backup/Download Course Content

It is a good practice to backup or copy your course materials at the end of the semester by exporting your Canvas course. You may share your exported course with another Canvas user, upload to another institution’s account at a later date, or retain the course as a backup on your local computer. For instructions on how to do this, see  How do I export a Canvas course?

Note:  Exports are packaged as IMSCC ZIP files, which can only be opened by programs that support Common Cartridge files. You may also change the extension from .imscc to .zip and treat it like any other .zip file.

Closeout your Panopto Folder

Canvas course access is closed out two weeks after grades are submitted at the end of the term. Even though the Canvas course term ends, students can still access the Panopto videos by going through the Panopto website. The term-end dates are not tied to the class Panopto folder. If you want to close the folder access, the course faculty has to change that class folder’s folder settings. Close Panopto folder access

Organize your Dashboard and Courses

The end of term is a good time to  organize your Canvas Dashboard . You may unfavorite (“unstar”) any published courses you don’t want on your Dashboard anymore. A concluded site that has not been favorited will appear in the “Past Enrollments” list (Courses>All Courses).

Note:  Concluded sites cannot be favorited (“starred”).

Need Assistance?

Visit the  Virtual Tech Hub!  We have drop-in hours daily or you can make an appointment with either  Julie (Orange)  or  Sarah (Rinker)  for 1-1 support.

If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

Availability

We are unavailable during the following staff holidays:

Wednesday, December 22, 2021 (after 2 pm)

Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 23, 2021

Christmas Day, Friday, December 24, 2021

Holiday Break, December 27, 2021, to December 31, 2021

For urgent technical questions, you may contact Chapman University’s Service Desk .

Self-Service Resources

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